basquin



(No Model.)

0. H. BASQUIN. v PRISM LIGHT AND PLATE.

No. 586,213. Patented July 13, 1897.

E A a A\\ [I A F A 1 1 J 4 g j Y \Y UNITED STATES PATENT OFFICE.

()LIN ll. BASQUIN, Cl! CHICAGO, ILLINOIS, ASSIGNOR TO THE LUXFER PRISM PATENTS COMPANY, OF SAME PLACE.

PRISM LIGHT AND PLATE.

SPECIFICATION forming part of Letters Patent NO. 586,213, dated July 13, 1897.

Application filed April 19, 1897. Serial No. 682,712. (No model.)

To cull whom it 727/(1/7 concern:

lleit known that I, OLIN ll. BASQUIN, a citizen of the United States, residing at Chicago, in the county of Cook and State of Illinois, 5 have invented and produced a new and useful Improvement in Prism Lights and Plates, of which the following is a description.

My invention relates to lights and prismplates made therefrom. It is illustrated in i0 the accompanying drawings, wherein Figure l is a plan view of a prism-light hexagonal in shape with a circular prism-surface. Fig. 2 is a similar view of a square light. Fig. 3 is aview of a prism-plate composed of such prism-lights.

Like parts are indicated by the same letters in all the figures.

A A are the bodies of the prism-lights, preferably smooth on one side and having each 20 a set of prisms B B, which prisms are arranged in a substantially circular body. C C are non-prismatic corner portions of such lights. In the plate it will be observed that the angle of the prisms varies in the different lights, the lights BB'having the prisms greatly inclined, the lights B B havingthem less inclined, and the lights H 13 having the prisms horizontal.

The value of this invention can be better 0 understood when it is taken in connection with the method or means by which such prism lights and plates are made. In prismplates for ordinary use it is very desirable to have variously arranged angles. In my drawings I have not attempted to show any particular arrangement of angles or to indi oate an arrangement of angles suitable for any particular purpose, but I have endeavored simply to illustrate, as it were, diagrammatically the manner in which my invention can be made use of. Now it is evident that if we desire to have a considerable number of angles in a given plate it would be neces sary to have a separate mold for each variation in the angles of the prism. In speaking of angles of the prisms I do not refer to the angular cross-section of the prism, but to the angular arrangement of the prism on its light or plate, particularly with reference to the 50 horizontal. By having a series of prismlights all of them. the same shape in their body portions and by having a central circular prismatic body on each I can frame any number of such prism-lights together, so as to have a frame uniform in general appearance, while at the same time by having such circular prism-surfaces set at any desired a11- gle of inclination I can accomplish the very desirable result of having prisms of various angles of inclination in the same plate, so as to direct the light into any predetermined direction or into any desired part of the room. Thus, for example, with a series of hexagon-shaped prism-lights it is obvious, as illustrated, that the angle of inclination of each of the sets of prisms in the several circular prisn'i-surfaces can be different from those of any other and the light can be thrown from any particular part of the plate into any desired direction by these means.

I claim- 1. As a new article of manufacture, a substantially flat prism-light comprising a body portion of transparent material having a receiving-surface and an outline other than circular, with an inscribed circular surface consisting of a series of substantially parallel prisms systematically arranged with each other and with the particular outline of the body portion of the prism-light to produce an increased illuminating effect and to throw substantially all the light into a predetermined direction, the diameter of such circular prism surface not exceeding the shortest diameter of the body portion, so that the prism-surface can be set in any relation to the outline of the body portion and thus throw substantially all of the light affected in any predetermined direction with referenoe to the outline of such body.

2. A prism-plate comprising a series of prism-lights combined together in a suitable frame or grid, all the lights having bodies non-circular in outline but uniform, each body having a circular prism-surface con sisting of a series of prisms systematically arranged to produce an increased illuminating eifect, substantially as shown and described.

OLIN II. BASQUIN.

Witnesses:

BERTHA 0. Sims, DONALD M. CARTER. 

